Catherine Morley

Catherine Morley

Catherine Morley (BA, RSA CELTA & DELTA) has taught general and business English in Spain and Mexico since 2001, and is a Cambridge CELTA and ICELT teacher trainer. She is currently a teacher at the British Council in Alcalá de Henares near Madrid.

1. Forbidden words. Students take a word from the bag. Teacher tells them to (secretly) write three words they associate with this word. She then tells them to define the word without using those three words. Other students listen and guess.

1. Vocabulary storytelling. Give students in groups of 3 – 5 a pile of words from the vocabulary bag. The first student takes a word and begins a story including that word. The second student takes the next word and continues the same story including their word, and so on. At the end, the group of students can use the words to retell or remember the story.

1. Vocabulary swap. Each student takes a card from the vocab bag, and in a mingle activity, gives a definition for another student to guess the word. After students speak, they exchange words, and move on to talk to another student, until most students have spoken to each other.

1. My house. Students draw a simple plan of their house and write words from the vocabulary bag in a place in the house which they “associate” with that word. Tell them to use their imagination! They then explain where they’ve written the words and why to a partner.

1. Student questionnaires. Students in groups take a pile of words from the vocabulary bag and use some of them to write a questionnaire (e.g. 5 questions) for their classmates. Tell students that they should work together to write the questions but that they all have to write. Then re-group students so that there is one person from each original group in a new group. They use the questions to interview their new partners and make a note of any interesting answers. If time permits, students can return to their old groups and tell their original partners about the most interesting answers they heard.

1. Written stories. Give students in groups a pile of words from the vocabulary bag. They have to write a story including at least 5 of these words. The teacher then sticks the finished stories up around the classroom. Other students read the stories and have to decide which are the words from the vocab bag in each of the other stories.

1. Vocabulary noughts and crosses. Draw a 3 x 3 grid on the board, number each square and stick a word from the vocabulary bag (face down) in each square below the number. Briefly review the rules for noughts and crosses, then divide the class into two teams and toss a coin to decide who goes first. The team chooses a number, and the teacher gives a definition for the word in that square. If the team gets the word right, they are awarded a nought or a cross. If not, the word is replaced, face down, back in the same position. Be sure that the other team doesn’t shout out the answer! If they think they know the answer, they have to choose that square when it’s their turn.

1. Vocabulary ‘pass the parcel’. Ask the students to sit in a circle. Stand outside the circle and control the CD player. Play the CD. As music plays, ask the students to pass around the vocabulary bag. Stop the CD at intervals during the song. When the music stops playing, the student who has the bag has to select a word from the bag and define the word to the other students. The student who guesses the word keeps the card and the game continues. The person who has the most cards at the end wins! If the student doesn't know how to define the word, it can be replaced with another or put back in the bag.

1. Correct collocations. Divide students into pairs or groups (maximum 3 students) and give each team a piece of paper with the number of the team in the corner. The teacher writes a collocation / phrasal verb / expression from the vocabulary bag on the board, and students work together to write a sentence of a minimum 8 words, including this collocation. The first team to write a 100 % correct sentence gets a point. To make sure that you know who finished first, tell students that they have to hold the paper up in the air when they’re done. If there is a mistake in the sentence, return the paper to the students without telling them where the mistake is and let them try to correct it. They still have a chance to win a point if the other teams still haven’t come up with a correct sentence.

1. Happy / sad faces. Give each student a post-it note divided in half horizontally and with a happy face at the top and a sad face at the bottom, like this:

Then give each student a pile of 6-8 words from the vocabulary bag. The student makes a note of the words (s)he understands next to the smiley face and words (s)he doesn’t know next to the sad face. Students then stick the post-it note onto their top and move around the room looking at other students’ post-its, explaining and asking about their own and other students’ words.

1. Backs to the board (also known as ‘hot seat’). An old favourite, but then we are on number 10! Divide students into two teams. One student from each team sits in the ‘hot seat’ with their back to the board. The teacher writes a word or phrase from the vocabulary bag on the board and the other students have to give definitions / examples / mime etc. to help the student in the hot seat guess the word. The first person in the hot seat to guess the word wins a point for their team. Change the person in the hot seat periodically.

1. Give each pair / group of students a pile of words from the vocabulary bag. They write a story including these five words. They then read the story out to the class, pausing after each word for other student to guess the word.

Ideas for an ‘end of class’ vocabulary review

• Clean your vocabulary column just before the end of class (having made a note of the words yourself). Then use the last 1-2 minutes of class to give definitions to re-elicit those words from students.
• Ask students to put away all their notes and take a blank sheet of paper. Give them 1-2 minutes individually to write down as much new vocabulary as they remember from the class. They then work with a partner, either just to compare, or if time permits, to give definitions for their partner to guess the words.
• Tell students to put all their notes away and hold an open-class brainstorm of new vocabulary from that lesson. Encourage students to explain to each other any new vocabulary they don’t remember. Take the opportunity to check students’ understanding of the new vocabulary e.g. by asking concept check questions or eliciting examples.

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